"Of course, reunification also needs the consent of the Republic of Ireland, which can only be obtained by putting it to the vote here" We....lllll Partition was a part of The Empire, which is long gone - it was supposed to be temporary anyway That being said - thas all but a majority for ending partition here for several years now and I have little doubt that the idea of a hard border would shift the balance convincingly Jim

From Backwoodsman's link:Currently, a driver of a UK-registered car is allowed to drive anywhere in the EU, the EEA (European Economic Area), Switzerland and Serbia, and not have to carry a green card that proves you have insurance cover.

But if the UK leaves without a deal, all changes and drivers will be expected to carry a green card when in mainland Europe and Ireland. They are likely to be issued by an insurance company for free, but the industry is warning it could take up to a month to obtain one, so if no deal happens and you're booked to go away with the car this Easter, you will need to act fast.

Typical Guardian: But if the UK leaves without a deal, all changes and drivers will be expected to carry a green card when in mainland Europe and Ireland. That sentence makes no sense (except to Guardian readers). I'm guessing that there should be a word, or phrase, between 'all' and 'changes'. But in the absence of such, it makes no sense.

The second paragraph says that drivers will be 'expected to carry a green card'. This does NOT mean that they will be 'required' to carry one. Again, Guardian readers may have a different understanding of the English language.

I know that there are those here who think that quoting from The Guardian helps put their case forward, but it appears that those who write for that paper are lacking in their understanding of the English language.

A hard brexit will hit Ireland severely. The UK is the 5th largest economy in the world, the Irish 40th. Therefore there is much less resilience. Additionally Ireland prides itself on a knowledge economy largely founded on the presence of multinationals in the country. Should the threatened tax harmonization occur within the EU their raison d'être may founder on quicksand. This is a double vulnerability further magnified by the UK being the biggest export market and UK food being 40% of Irish supermarket goods(roughly) and UK ferry ports acting as entrepôt ports for Irish trade to and from the EU. Varadkar is doing his country no favours by trying to act the bogeymen thwarting British attempts to extricate themselves from the disaster zone of the EU. The demographics indicate reunification is a likely outcome at some future point, providing it is seen as of economic benefit to the North. Is a free health service more of a draw than a political ideal, as far as the majority in the north are concerned? (To give but one example)

Raggy, the DUP can say what it likes. According to my understanding of the Good Friday Agreement, the call for a border poll doesn't require British Parliamentary consent, just the advice of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (in the absence of Stormont), if he or she has cause to believe that it's the popular will. It's a government issue, not a Parliament one, so all the PM has to do is accept the judgment of the S of S, and proceed to put a border poll in motion. And if the PM refuses, it probably wouldn't happen. But if it gets denied in the event of a hard Brexit, seven kinds of hell will probably break loose, for financial reasons more than political ones.

[The DUP's] insistence in remaining part of the UK has never featured strongly in people's minds; rather it has been a case of economic security... Brexit has driven a Chieftain Tank through that one.

It'll drive a tank through the Protestant farmers/small businesses vote too, when election time rolls around, which the DUP would do well to remember. As Jim has indicated, people are more worried about being able to feed their children and keep up mortgage payments than ideologies.

Of course, reunification also needs the consent of the Republic of Ireland, which can only be obtained by putting it to the vote here, i.e. a referendum. If both nations then find for reunification, the legislation is already in place (AFAIU) to implement it.

"You get the DUP to agree to that and I'll buy you a pint!!" The DUP are no longer in a majority and will need to rely on other parties to pass legislation when Stormont finally reopens Their insistence in remaining part of the UK has never featured strongly in people's minds; rather it has been a case of economic security to leave things as they are - Brexit had driven a Chieftain Tank through that one so, if it ever comes to a vote it is quite likely that a United Ireland will walk it Crazy situation - a party that has to rely on support of other parties in the Six Counties is now propping up the British Government - 'Yes Prime Minister' couldn't have made this up - let alone 'Spitting Image' A feckin' laughing stock - the lot of them Jim Carroll

These tariffs are a direct tax on British consumers. Who will be obliged to pay more for many staples, such as cheese. Availability could be a problem too, we may be back to the dark dank days of the 70s, when the only cheese you could get was plastic cheddar from Budgens.

That also sounds like a push for a no deal, then have someone in charge who is not bound by any of her promises, to enable any regulations or restrictions to be jettisoned if they wish. Goodbye an independent farming sector.

O sometimes wonder if David Davis's inactivity for the start of this was a conscious long term strategy - he was always aiming for no deal.

I think, by the way, that a lot of the dire predictions of no-deal will turn out to be false or wildly exaggerated. But don't worry, the fraction thar is accurate will be quite bad enough by itself. It is worth saying because I expect we could hear a lot of "you predicted the seven plagues and they didn't happen." Maybe not, but one plague is quite enough.

Abu-Zakariya al-Britani, also known as Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, murdered a number of Iraqi soldiers and killed himself via murder-bombing in 2017. The BBC reported that Tony Blair personally was involved with getting Abu-Zakariya freed from Guantanamo in 2004. The UK government paid $1 million as compensation to Abu-Zakariya al-Britani for his stay at Guantanamo

According to the latest estimate by the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (ODNI), the rate of confirmed or suspected recidivism among former Guantanamo detainees is about 27 percent or 161 individuals out of the 600 released (HASC, 2012). The estimated recidivism rate, however, has been rising up from seven percent in July 2008 to 14 percent in April 2009, and 25 percent in October 2010 (HASC, 2012

So of the 800 returning jihadis that little jimmie is crowing about, conservative statistics suggest 200 will be active terrorists on their return and queue up very happily to get the free bus pass and bomb making lessons so kindly volunteered by raggedtytash our resident buffoon. God preserve us from clueless leftie luvvies!

In the war the ration was calculated to be nutritionally adequate. People ate it because (black market aside) they had no choice. What is being talked of post Brexit is increases in precisely the fresh food that is an important part of a balanced diet.

Retailers have warned that a no-deal Brexit will lead to “unaffordable” price hikes on food and drink for customers in both the UK and Ireland as well as causing shortages of some everyday items.

Leaders of retail bodies said reverting to World Trade Organisation tariffs could make the cost of making fresh food and drink available to consumers increase by as much as 45 per cent- which is likely to be passed on to customers.

Food and drink production will be made more expensive due to a combination of higher tariffs and new regulatory checks, according to Aodhan Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, Thomas Burke, director of Retail Ireland and William Bain, the British Retail Consortium Europe and international policy adviser.

May has managed to nause up the offer of visa free travel to the EU by whining about the description of Gibralter as a British Colony. Its just words, but this could mess up the travel plans of millions.

"The surgeon has now explained that the procedure will be fatal and the patient is still insisting that he goes ahead with it!" A perfect plot for Holby City - not too god for the people of Britain Jim

As you know 40 days and 40 nights from now my UK brothers and sisters face a no deal hard Brexit that will trigger the beginning of a shortage of medicine and food. On top of this the the border with northern Ireland makes trade crazy and travel restrictions in general will be insane. I thought you guys would have sorted this but now even I am truely scared of the coming suffering.

Ignoring the new policies will be rampant along with black markets springing up will become the new crimes. I am in no position to speculate what can not be forseen but what i do see is worse than Trump tariffs times 10.

John Oliver has compared your referendum to a surgeon that gives the patient two options and the patient accidentaly chose the fatal option.

So now three Conservatives have joined the independent group. I don't think these are the last from either side.

It is interesting that both parties are saying "We are a broad church." It doesn't matter whether *you* think you are a broad church. What matters is if others agree. And in this case, from both sides, some don't.

Welcoming Hatton and Livingstone back in the fold and allowing momentum to become as divisive as the banned militant tendencywill probably destroy the Labour party and the undercurrent of antisemitism allegations still swim around, brought to the fore by the recent defections. Corbyn cannot be trusted and his opinions are more changeable than the weather. It does the cause of democracy no favours when the opposition party has the tail wagging the dog, and the dog is on the point of expiry.steptoe senior is an apt analogy, he is tottering over a heap of rubbish.

"Irish Times" Interesting critique of the Labour Party in a leader article yesterday - it tend to show a failure to fully understand the problems faced by a party attempting to cleanse itself of leadership little different from those on the other side of The House, but its opening statement deserves a place in political history

"The British Labour Party should be on the cusp of a historic triumph. The main opposition party faces one of the most incompetent administrations in any major European state in the post-war era: a lurching, hopelessly riven Conservative Party led by a zombie figurehead, kept in power by an ultra-conservative single-issue outfit from Northern Ireland, and unable to come up with a workable policy on the most consequential issue of the past half a century"." Jim Carroll

if there is a second referendum,imo the referendum should have only two choices remain or leave,any pissing about with inclusion of mays deal[ as a voting option] will only split a vote and could prevent an overall majority.

That link has changed since I posted it. It still contains what was the main theme before, namely:

=====

[May] was forced to admit to Conservative MPs that the Irish backstop could not be replaced by the “Malthouse compromise” – proposals for a free trade agreement with as-yet-unknown technology to avoid customs checks on the Irish border.

=====

Not surprisingly, May seems to have wobbled to say maybe in time it can be.

HONDA: In a statement on Tuesday, Honda said it would close the factory west of London as part of global restructuring of its manufacturing network to prepare for the age of electric vehicles.

The closure of Honda’s sole manufacturing site in Europe is expected to lead to the loss of 3,500 British jobs and deals a massive blow to the UK’s car industry as the country prepares to leave the EU.

The company also said it would close its factory in Turkey, where it employs 1,100 people and produces about 50,000 cars a year, of which 20 per cent are exported to Europe. Analysts say the Swindon closure is long overdue. Honda had been scaling back its struggling UK operation for years and its market share in Europe remains tiny. the new EU-Japan trade deal and declining market conditions in Europe likely affected the decision by Japan’s third-largest carmaker.

and of course the remainiacs carefully overlook the following: The negotiations of the EU-Japan free trade agreement are now in the advanced stages. The latest statistics show that Japan is the fifth most important destination for European passenger cars and ranks second among countries exporting cars to the EU.Nearly 575,000 Japanese cars with a total value of €9 billion were imported into the EU in 2016. A trade pact that will remove EU tariffs of 10 percent on Japanese cars and 3 percent on most car parts is in the offing. Cheaper to now produce in Japan and export. Awkward things facts! Now what was that about brexit?

Ians said that there would be no food tariffs post Brexit. Gove says otherwise. Lamb and beef almost certainly. Possibly cereals. Aha, it's a good job we don't live on potato, though it looks as if some of us may do so in the future?